Home»Blog» Recargo Inc. and SemaConnect Inc. Introduce Open System for Public EV Charging “Pay With PlugShare” Launches on the World’s Largest EV Charging Station Network

SemaConnect Blog

October 9, 2013

Recargo Inc. and SemaConnect Inc. Introduce Open System for Public EV Charging “Pay With PlugShare” Launches on the World’s Largest EV Charging Station Network

VENICE, CA and BETHESDA, MD– October1, 2013– RecargoInc., electric vehiclesoftware and information services company has partnered with SemaConnect, a national leaderin electric vehicle chargingstations to launch a new public chargerpayment solution. “Pay With PlugShare” has been engineered to be the easiest and most universal public charging system currently available, and will operateseamlessly under PlugShare, the most widelyused app to finda place to charge and now to pay for your charge. Pay With Plugsharewill be available at more than 300 SemaConnect chargingstations in the United Statesand Canada.

Both companies want driversto be able to plug in at public stationswith efficiency and ease. Pay With PlugShare solves the current dilemmaof proprietary payment,extra fees, and members-­‐only charging. The service combinesfinding the best place to charge for every driver’sunique plug-­‐in needs, whileaccessing the world’slargest charging network,with a payment solution built into the same app. Since the paymentmethod only needs a smartphone and doesn’t requiremembership costs and prepaidsubscriptions, and RFID tokens or phone calls, this process is more reliableand cost effectivefor drivers to charge.

“We heard from drivers and charging networkswho want to make payingfor charging as easy as we’ve made findinga place to charge. We thought if it’s possibleto pay for a parkingmeter with a credit card, why not the same for a charging station?”said Brian Kariger,CEO of Recargo Inc. “We are pleased to launch Pay With PlugShare with SemaConnect and finally give drivers a simplesolution to chargingpayment. Ultimately, we want the industry to thrive and our service to encourageEV adoption by providing the smoothest plug-­‐in experience for all.”

Pay With PlugShare was designed to easily integrate with any chargingnetwork so the driver experienceis always easy and fast. The platformis currently availablewith iOS and will soon be availablewith Android this winter.Visa, MasterCard, and Discover are all accepted;credit card and customer data is storedsecurely.

“Our focus has been on buildingsophisticated charging stationsthat are simpleto use and incredibly reliable with the best user interface possible, so partnering with PlugShare was a naturalfit,” said Mahi Reddy, CEO and Founderof SemaConnect. “We want to define a higher standardfor the chargingexperience based on quality, not quantity, for all electricvehicle drivers.”

As the highest reviewed, most downloaded and most used app servingover 60% of EV drivers, PlugShare aims to satisfy the plug-­‐in community’s needs. Additional PlugSharefeatures include:

• Browse, search, and filter the world’s largestdatabase of chargingstations

• Stations display a PlugScore rating to show drivers which locations the driver willlikely have the best experience.

The Pay With PlugShare platform has been designed to be chargingnetwork neutral and scalable from the groundup. Networks providingfee based publiccharging can add Pay With PlugShare functionality easily whilemaintaining directcontrol over pricingand their infrastructure. To match the needs of different networks-­‐ Pay With PlugShare can be linked with their existing paymentinfrastructure or canleverage PlugShare’s e-­‐commerce infrastructure. Additionally, Open ChargePoint Protocol (OCPP)Support will be rolled out before the end of 2013 allowing Networksthat have investedin OCPP to leverage theirexisting technology. “SemaConnect has been an ideal launchpartner for Recargo.Working together we were able to integrate Pay With PlugShare into SemaConnect’s exisiting APIs in a matter of weeks not months,” said Forrest North,Recargo COO.

Recargo and SemaConnect are dedicated to moving the EV industryforward and supporting the needs of drivers by providing the most convenient public charging experience. Enabling Pay With PlugShare equipsEV drivers with the necessary tools to find and accesscharging easily.

Recargo Inc. is a leading EV software and services companythat provides consumerand industry intelligence throughsocial driving tools to supportthe adoption and growth of plug-­‐in mobility. PlugShareis the company’s flagship productwith the world’slargest charging network.The company is based in Venice, CA, with officesin Menlo Park, CA. For more informationabout Recargo Inc. and the company’s productofferings, visit http://www.recargo.com/and follow@RecargoNews on Twitter.

SemaConnect, Inc. is a national leaderin commercial electricvehicle charging stationsthat comes bundledwith free cloud-­‐based management software to empowerstations owners with superior chargingmanagement options and electric vehicledrivers with multiplecard-­‐less chargingoptions. SemaConnect providesa free mobile application that produces real-­‐time data usage, station navigation and card-­‐less charging sessions.Our sleek and sophisticated charging station has become the top choicein the commercial real estate,hotel, retail and multifamily sectors. Together with Recargo,SemaConnect now providesEV drivers with the largestnetwork of electricvehicle charging stationmaps on the market. For more information about SemaConnect, visitwww.semaconnect.com.